


Just a Pinch

by LightPinkTheColorOfMyAura



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hunk is a ray of sunshine, One Shot, Space Dad, broganes, keith and pidge are partners in crime, lance is a little shit, sick fic (kind of?), space vaccines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 22:40:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13580418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightPinkTheColorOfMyAura/pseuds/LightPinkTheColorOfMyAura
Summary: Keith always handles sharp and prickly things. His blade, his bayard, his personality-so why is a little needle so scary?





	Just a Pinch

**Author's Note:**

> A request from Jessiqualove on tumblr! Thanks for requesting another fic :D

Pidge was the first of the team to get her vaccination. She helped develop it, and it was an ingenious creation as far as she and Coran, the other contributor, were concerned. It was a conglomeration of other existing vaccines, so the trial-runs were unnecessary. The only major test required was to see if the ingredients were compatible with the human system, and that the mixture wouldn’t have adverse side-effects.

The vaccines contained similar ingredients, different chemicals present in many solutions that helped preserve the dead and weakened viruses of about a dozen of the most common space ailments. There was no concern about side-effects of combining them once that was addressed. The question of compatibility with the human body, however, took a bit longer. Pidge had done the most work on this aspect of the creation of the new vaccine, meticulously checking each and every ingredient to see what it was. Some of the Altean and Galaxian words for things were  _ quite _ different than the English or Latin words she was used to when describing these molecules. 

Nonetheless, the list was thoroughly checked and deemed safe for human use. All that was left for the first person to get their shot. She, being the one that first brought up the topic of sicknesses, was eager to volunteer. Finally, they could be a bit more safe in their journey to meet new species.

“Hunk don’t be a pus-”

“ _ Katie Holt _ .” Shiro’s dad’s voice stopped her mid-swear. She shrunk away from him, despite not actually being afraid. Swearing was one thing, but Shiro drew the line at any words he deemed vulgar.

The young girl cleared her throat and corrected herself, snark evident, “Hunk, please do not be frightened to give me the shot, I have a high pain tolerance.” She cut her eyes at Shiro and flashed a shit-eating grin.

He nodded in approval nonetheless, but Hunk saw him roll his eyes the moment she refocused on the Yellow Paladin. “Stick it to me, buddy.”

Hunk sighed and muttered about  _ why did he have to be the one to give out the shots _ ?

* * *

The Blue Paladin wrinkled his nose at the sight of the big needle. Raising his eyebrow, Hunk gave him a sharp look of annoyance and Lance bolted out.

“Lance if you don’t come get this shot,” Hunk shouted after him, “I’m  _ telling the team what happened on Valentine’s day in our first year at the Garrison _ .”

Still in earshot, Lance groaned and placed his back against the wall. Hunk had him there. He couldn’t let his best friend blast his most embarrassing memory to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. He turned to admit defeat, but ran straight into Keith.

“What happened on Valentine’s day?” He asked, having overheard Hunk’s booming voice. Lance felt his entire face, from ear to ear, light on fire. He  _ especially _ didn’t want his rival to know. 

“Nothing!” He turned to Hunk’s direction, “Just something dumb I did that Hunk is using to get me to get this dumb vaccination.” With an exaggerated huff, he glanced back to Keith, “And it’s working. Later.”

He returned to his friend and gave into the inevitable. After all, he  _ did _ know that it was important to do, he just didn’t like shots very much.

* * *

Shiro willingly came next, walking into the room shortly after Hunk had calmed down a whiny Lance by promising to bake him cookies that  _ wouldn’t  _ break his teeth.

“I figured Lance and Pidge would be the most adverse to the shot, so I’d let you deal with them first.” He sat down and pulled up a sleeve to expose his upper arm for Hunk. “Keith should have been a breeze, that boy has the pain tolerance of a bear.”

Hunk inserted the needle and gave him the shot without a hitch, then gave the leader a look of confusion. “Keith hasn’t come by yet. Actually,” Hunk thought about it for a second, “I haven’t seen him since shortly after Pidge and Coran announced that they had completed the vaccination.” He placed a small bandage over the shot site for it to stay clean.

Shiro rubbed his arm, blinking slowly. Once he pieced it together, he replied, “I’ll go talk to him.” He  _ knew _ Keith wasn’t avoiding Hunk. 

* * *

The Black Paladin tracked down his mentee immediately after his conversation with Hunk. Keith was easy to find, as he was fighting the Altean bots in the training room as per usual. Shiro shouted out the kill command, stopping the sequence the moment he reached the room.

“Keith, you need to go down to medical and get your shot.” He said, voice clipped. Shiro didn’t  _ like _ being the father figure of the entire team, yet he was the only one fit for it  _ apparently _ .

The Red Paladin cut his eyes at him, and muttered out, “Yeah, sure.” He exhaled sharply and walked past Shiro. The older man narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. 

“I’ll be down there in five. You had better be properly inoculated by then.” Shiro added. 

“Yes,  _ dad _ .” Keith snapped, stalking out of the room as quickly as possible. The Black Paladin sucked his teeth in annoyance and crossed his arms.

* * *

“Hunk, have you seen Keith yet?” A shake of the Yellow Paladin’s head sent Shiro’s blood pressure sky high. “ _ I’m going to absolutely murder him. _ ” He muttered under his breath.

“Uh,” Hunk squawked, his eyes wide and his hands up defensively, “isn’t that a bit of an overreaction?” Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose, and exhaled for a few seconds as if he were calming himself down.

“Probably. But this is becoming an  _ ordeal _ .” 

* * *

“Keith?” Allura asked, confused, “Actually I did just see him.” The Princess thought it was odd that Shiro had asked  _ her _ where Keith was, given that it was no secret that the two of them still had some residual tension between them. They were working on it, but it took time.

“That’s great,” Shiro replied, a sigh of relief escaping him. “Where is he at? I need to speak to him.” Allura’s confusion dropped into a slight grimace.

“You just missed him, he asked if there were any patrols we needed done. I told him there was a nearby rebel base that we needed to check on and he volunteered.” Shiro covered nearly his entire face with his left hand. She hesitated slightly, “Should I not have allowed him to go?”

He replied with his hand still over his face, garbling his response too much. He exhaled sharply and removed his hand to reply properly, “No, you’re fine. He’s avoiding me.”

* * *

“Are you looking for Keith because of the shot?” Pidge asked, immediately hitting the nail on the head. The leader felt no need to explain it further, and simply nodded. She laughed, “What, is knife-guy afraid of something  _ sharp _ ?” 

Shiro’s loud groan echoed through the control room. He looked to the young girl, sitting at her desk with a few tech parts scattered over it. “ _ Not  _ helping.” He replied finally, after his minor childish fit. Pidge snorted, thoroughly amused by the situation.

“I’ll keep an eye out for him.” She promised, holding her thumb up for him.

Shiro’s stress eased a little and he let out a breath of relief. “Thank you, I really appreciate that, Pidge.” He glanced at the door, “I’ll go talk to a few of the others, see if they know where he’s gone to.” He exited through the door and hung a left, towards the common area.

Pidge waited for the footsteps to distance a little before she swiftly jerked her leg forward. A shout of pain came from under her desk, followed by the entire thing moving as something bumped the underside hard. 

“What the fuck?” Keith grumbled, crawling out from under her. Pidge propped her feet up on him before he could stand.

“Deal. Is. Done.” She stressed, “Now hand over the glowy dagger for me to run tests.” The Green Paladin held out her hand and made a grabby motion, opening and closing it quickly. “ _Gimme_.” She added, when Keith took too long to reach into the back waistband of his pants to retrieve it.

* * *

The next two days on the castle were comprised entirely of Shiro trying to chase Keith down. The first night, their fearless leader knew that Keith was being entirely serious when the Red Paladin had found somewhere else to sleep other than his room. Shiro spent a few hours poking his head into the other paladins’ rooms before giving up and calling it for the night.

Lance rolled his eyes when Shiro had scanned  _ his _ room, as the Blue Paladin already knew that Keith had certainly slept in Red for the night. He, himself, had done the same thing on restless nights with his own lion. 

The following morning Keith continued to busy himself with various tasks that involved him being as far from the infirmary-and Shiro-as possible. By the time the second night rolled around, the Black Paladin finally filled the rest of the team in on the problem and made them swear to help get Keith.

In the end, the cornered the Red Paladin in the training room. He backed up against the wall like a wild animal and the other six team members surrounded him, save for his flank. Heaving a dramatic huff, Keith finally relented.

“Okay  _ fine _ .” He whined. “I’ll take the fucking god damned shitty shot.” He complained. Shiro scowled in response, but the younger teammates could only snicker at his childish outburst.

“Are those  _ all _ the bad words you know, Keith?” Pidge questioned, her voice laced with faux wonder. 

“Fuck you.”

“ _ Keith _ .” Shiro cut him off before he could get going any further. “You know how important this vaccination is, and you’re being extremely childish about the entire ordeal.  _ Any _ possible side effects of the shot would have long diminished by now, if you had  _ any reaction _ to the shot at all.” He explained. Hunk nodded in agreement with Shiro, the concern on  _ his _ face untainted by any kind of brotherly disappointment or annoyance like Shiro’s. 

“It’s better to just get it over with, man.” He added, “I promise, it won’t hurt any more than a pinch. I’ve even had mine done, and I’m fine!” Hunk rolled his sleeve up and showed Keith a small, circular bandaid on his upper arm. “Did it earlier today, felt like a little pinch, and now I hardly feel it at all.”

* * *

“ _ What the fuck Lance _ .” Keith snapped, after being pinched by the other boy for the fourth time. “ _ Stop _ pinching me you prick.” He swatted away a hand, but Lance just scoffed and pinched him again. 

“I’m getting you ready for your shot you big baby.” He teased, going in for another. Keith ducked back and hid behind Pidge. Lance stopped, at the expense of falling a few steps behind the rest of the group walking to the infirmary, and gave Keith the dirtiest look he could. “You’re going to hide behind a tiny little gremlin?”

Pidge shrugged, “He knows I can protect him from you.” Lance caught back up with his friends in just a couple of large strides and raised his hand indignantly to his chest. “Maybe not physically, but with blackmail.” She elaborated.

“Not fair.” He grumbled, but didn’t touch Keith for the remainder of the walk. 

Once they reached the room, Keith walked with Hunk to set up the vaccine and sterilize the tools. The Red Paladin watched as Lance leaned over to whisper something to Pidge, but couldn’t hear anything being said. Annoyed by that, and Lance’s overall behavior, he turned to face Hunk fully. 

“So you just clean my arm, and stick me with it, and then it’s over?” He asked. Hunk nodded.

“Yep, and then you’re home free.” Keith looked at his friend apprehensively.

“And it doesn’t hurt at a-” A small, sharp pain caught him off guard. “What the  _ fuck _ , Lance?” He snapped. The other boy had snuck over once again and pinched him. Another pinch, from the other side, came. He felt Lance smear his hand over his arm but ignored it to chide Pidge. “Don’t get sucked into him being an asshole, Pidge.”

He felt yet  _ another  _ pinch. By now he was desensitized to it and simply snapped his head over to Lance without so much as a jump. “Stop fucking touching me.” He said angrily.

Lance held his hands up defensively, and Keith realized that he wasn’t even right next to him any more. Hunk smiled sheepishly as he waited a tick before pulling the needle out of Keith’s arm. The Yellow Paladin set down the needle and pressed a bandaid matching his own onto Keith’s arm. He raised his hands and his smile widened.

“You’re done!” He said, somehow keeping the phrase from sounding patronizing. “What did we tell you buddy?” Hunk asked, patting Keith’s now-vaccinated arm, “Just a pinch.”

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to send a prompt or request my way, hit my tumblr up! It's lightpinkthecolorofmyaura


End file.
